


Blooming Days

by submarinebunny



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-07-13 20:48:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16025705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/submarinebunny/pseuds/submarinebunny
Summary: Taeyong has to deal with a grumpy customer who barely cares about his flowers.





	Blooming Days

Taeyong watched as a cute stranger entered his flower shop. He seemed to be about his age, a little taller than himself, maybe, and his almond-shaped eyes wandered around, looking lost amidst the sea of flowers.

“May I help you, sir?”

“Uh, yeah, hi, do you have anything that says ‘thank you for being cute’ or whatever?” The stranger said still looking at the arrangements on display.

“I’m sorry?”

“Look,” said the stranger, looking at him with slightly desperate eyes, “I’m not the most romantic person out there, so I’m not that familiar with the meanings behind flowers, but I need something that says “hey, I think you’re cute, maybe we should go on a date” or something like that. Can you help me?

“Sure!” Taeyong had to admit he was a little disappointed to have his hopes of maybe asking the man out crushed so soon, but he put on his best customer smile and continued, “I think peonies are a good choice for that. Would you like to see some of the arrangements we have?” He said, gesturing to his left.

“Are those peonies?” The man asked, pointing at a little woven basket filled with them.

“Yes!”

“Great, I’ll take that one. I don’t need a card, just the arrangement is fine, please.” And just like that, the man paid for the flowers and left. Taeyong didn’t even find out his name, as he paid in cash, but he kept thinking about him for the rest of the day.

 

“Good afternoon, sir! How may I help you today?” The stranger had returned two days after buying the peonies.

“Hi! So, I need another arrangement, still along the lines of “you’re cute, please date me” - can you suggest me something?”

“Sure! Did the person like the peonies?” Taeyong couldn’t help but pry.

“Uh, yeah, I guess…”

“Oh. I see.” He guesses? What is that supposed to mean? How self-centered do you have to be to give someone beautiful flowers and not even pay attention to their reaction? Taeyong was suddenly glad he didn’t have the chance to ask the man out - he didn’t need that kind of negativity in his life.

“Yeah, so,” the man said, snapping Taeyong out of his thoughts. “Can you fix me up with another one?”

“Sure! These are ranunculus - they symbolize charm and attraction.”

“They’re what now?”

“Ranunculus.”

“Uh… okay, sure, they’re fine. I’ll take them, please.”

At least he knew how to say please and thank you, Taeyong thought as he took the money and watched the man leave the shop. But honestly, what was the point of such a pretty face if the man had such a bad attitude, especially about his flowers?

 

Three days later, the man came back. Taeyong tried to remain cheerful, but knowing the man’s attitude, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep it up for long.

“Nice to see you again, sir! How-”

“Dongyoung.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Dongyoung. My name. You don’t have to call me sir. Please don’t call me sir. It makes me feel old.”

“Alright, Dongyoung.” He had a pretty name. Taeyong hated that. “How can I help you today?”

“Just… I don’t know… Tulips? They’re flowers, right? Do they mean lovey-dovey things?” He sounded exhausted, and Taeyong almost felt bad for him.

“They mean ‘perfect love’.” 

“That’ll work, I guess.”

“I’ll set up a bouquet. By the way, how did the ranunculus turn out?”

“The what now?”

“The ranunculus? The arrangement you bought the last time you came?”

“Oh. I don’t know. I suppose they were fine.”

“Oh. Alright.” Taeyong was starting to get really annoyed at that kind of response, but he kept quiet for the sake of his business. After all, as insufferable as Dongyoung was, it was the third time that week he had bought flowers from him. Plus, it was Saturday, which meant that in a few hours he’d be able to go home, play with his puppy, drink some wine, take a nice bath and relax, hopefully forgetting Dongyoung’s pretty face.

 

Sunday came around and Taeyong woke up to a sick puppy in his living room. There was something clearly wrong with Daisy and he started panicking, quickly rushing to his car and driving around town in the hopes of finding a vet that was crazy enough to work on a Sunday morning. Once he finally found an open clinic, he took Daisy to the front desk and the boy that worked there - Renjun - informed him that Dr. Kim was about to finish an appointment, which meant they would thankfully only have to wait a few minutes.

Twenty minutes later, as Taeyong was about to fall asleep in his chair, he heard the approaching voices of two men talking about a cat who apparently had the flu. As he looked up in their direction, he say a boy holding a kitten in his arms and Dongyoung, dressed in a white coat, caressing the cat’s head as he assured the boy - Jeno, or so he heard - that everything would be fine. As Renjun gave Daisy’s file to Dongyoung, Jeno said his goodbyes to the doctor and followed Renjun to his desk, where they began chatting animatedly.

“Looks like our roles have switched!” Said Dongyoung as Taeyong and Daisy approached his office. “How can I help little Daisy?” He said, ushering them in.

Taeyong was surprised to see Dongyoung’s behavior that morning. He sounded sweet and attentive, nothing like the grumpy man who had bought flowers from him. He diagnosed Daisy with an ear infection, and after making sure Taeyong understood the steps for treating it correctly, he accompanied them to the front desk in order to give Taeyong one of his business cards for any emergencies or questions that could come up. As the two men approached the desk, they could overhear Jeno and Renjun talking.

“...think it was him?”

“There’s no way he’d send me flowers,” said Renjun. “I bet he doesn’t even know what a rose looks like!”

“Are you sure there wasn’t a card or something?”

“No, I checked all three arrangements! Dongyoung-hyung said they were delivered for me, but he didn’t see a card either!” Taeyong started to connect the dots. So Dongyoung was sending flowers to his receptionist? The kid looked barely 18! To think he almost let the appointment change his impression of the doctor…

“Dongyoung-hyung!” Jeno called as he spotted the two men. “Are you sure you don’t know who sent Renjunnie the flowers?”

“No, they, uh, there wasn’t a card, so…” Taeyong noticed how he stammered. Unbelievable. Hitting on an employee, and a much younger one, at that. What a jerk.

“Do you think Yukhei could have done it?”

“Jeno!” Renjun immediately punched his arm, making his cat startle.

“What? I’m just asking!”

“Of course Yukhei didn’t send me flowers, I told you that’s absurd! Why would he send me flowers? I bet he doesn’t even remember my name...” Renjun said as a very obvious blush creeped onto his cheeks.

“You know what?” Dongyoung chimed in. “Renjunnie, Yukhei does know your name. In fact, my step-brother knows a lot about you, because he keeps pestering me to tell him about you every chance he gets. I was honestly getting a little tired of hearing him talking about you, so I suggested he’d do something about it, and he did - he made me go buy flowers for you three times this week, to, quote, profess his undying love for you, end quote. I had to rush to the flower shop between appointments to put the flowers in your desk during your break time so that you wouldn’t see them  _ not  _ being delivered. So yeah, maybe you should talk to him about that. I’ll give you his number if you don’t have it already - he certainly has yours…”

Oh.

_ Oh _ .

“Anyways, Taeyong, let me grab you a card. Oh, Renjunnie, why don’t you tell Taeyong how you felt about the flowers? He’s the owner of the shop and he kept asking me questions about it but I never knew what to answer, so if you could do the honors…”

Taeyong was glad to hear Renjun had loved the flowers, looking up their meanings and finding them a nice spot in his bedroom. As Taeyong gave him tips for taking good care of them, Dongyoung returned with a small envelope.

“I, uh, I put the card in the envelope just so it wouldn’t, I don’t know, tear or something. You can open it when you get home! Bye!” He seemed a little nervous, but Taeyong decided to ignore that. After finding out what had really happened, his bad feelings towards the vet had been thrown out the window, but he needed some time to process his new crush.

 

After he got home and handled Daisy’s treatment, he decided to add Dongyoung’s number to his contact list and send him a message identifying himself. Deep down, he was hoping they could talk more, maybe decide to meet for coffee or dinner and a movie… Once he opened the envelope, he saw that it contained, along with the business card, a small piece of paper that read:

_ Roses are red, _

_ Irises are blue, (yes, I did some research) _

_ Flowers are pretty _

_ But not prettier than you. _

 

_ Dongyoung _

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday drea! i hope you (and everyone else) enjoy this lil drabble <3
> 
> also my knowledge of both flowers and pet diseases is incredibly limited so please bear with me and my quick google search  
> hit me up @myeonctzen on twt


End file.
